Most women with postmenopausal bleeding will be diagnosed with endometrial cancer, according to a survey published in JAMA Internal Medicine online Aug. 6.

Megan A. Clark, Ph.D., of the National Cancer Institute in Rockville, Maryland, and colleagues conducted a systematic literature review and meta-analysis to give a reference to the incidence of postmenopausal bleeding in endometrial cancers, and the risk of developing this cancer in women with postmenopausal bleeding. The authors analyzed 129 observational studies, including 34,432 unique patients with postmenopausal bleeding and 6,358 with endometrial cancer.

The researchers found that the overall prevalence of postmenopausal bleeding in women with endometrial cancer was 91 percent, regardless of the stage of the tumor. Among women with postmenopausal bleeding overall risk of developing uterine cancer was 9 percent, and estimates ranged using hormone replacement therapy (range, 7 percent, P <0,001 for heterogeneity) and geographical area (range: 5 percent in North America and 13 percent in the West Europe, P = 0,09 for heterogeneity).

"These findings may help to assess the potential clinical value of new markers for early detection strategies and clinical treatment of endometrial cancer and help inform the model prediction of the clinical and epidemiological risk to support decision-making," the authors write.